Energy issues have always been important in international relations, but in recent years may have become even more important than in the past due to the widespread awareness of existing limits to energy sources and negative climate impacts. The course discusses global trends in energy consumption and production, various available scenarios for potential developments in the coming decades, the availability of oil reserves and the evolution of the oil industry. It then discusses natural gas and highlights the differences between oil and gas. It will also discuss renewable energy sources, nuclear energy and EU energy policy.
The course aims at providing students whose main interest is in international relations a background on energy resources, technology and economic realities to allow them to correctly interpret the political impact of current developments. It also aims at providing students, who already have a technical background in energy science or engineering, with the broad global view of energy issues that will allow them to better understand the social, economic and political impact of their technical knowledge.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR :
Giacomo Luciani
Scientific Advisor for the Master in International Energy at the Paris School of International Affairs (PSIA) Sciences Po, Giacomo Luciani is also Adjunct Professor at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva and Director of the Executive Master in International Oil and Gas Leadership. For the period 2010-13 he was appointed Princeton University Global Scholar, attached to the Woodrow Wilson School and the Department of Near Eastern Studies. His research focuses on the political economy of the Middle East and North Africa and on global energy issues.
RECOMMENDED BACKGROUND :
The course requires no special scientific, mathematical or economic background; all key concepts are clearly and elementarily explained. It is expected that it will be of interest to undergraduate and graduate students in schools where an equivalent course is not offered (this being the case for the vast majority of schools).
USPC
Sorbonne Paris Cité
Supported by Université Sorbonne Paris Cité
IDEX
Investissements d'Avenir
Funded by Investissements d'Avenir - 'ANR.
Info :
Course content : Licence Creative Commons BY NC SA

Ministrado por

Giacomo Luciani

Transcrição

In this session, we are going to discuss nuclear energy. This is certainly the most difficult and contentious topic in the whole panorama of energy sources. It is difficult and contentious because of the close association of nuclear energy with the nuclear weapon, the potential consequences of nuclear accidents, which makes all that opinion on nuclear energy is sharply divided, some people are very much in favor of it because it is a possibly cheap source of energy, and does not entail any emissions of CO2 so it's completely decarbonized, while other people emphasize the risks of nuclear energy, and therefore are opposed to it. Nuclear energy has been associated with the nuclear weapon in the development of nuclear energy at the international level, began when Dwight Eisenhower, the US president went to the United Nations and delivered the speech called Atoms for Peace, in which he proposed to make this nuclear technology available to all that desire to utilize it for peaceful purposes. This is how the International Atomic Energy Agency was established in Vienna, and it is interesting to underline that nuclear energy is the only form of energy for which we have an international organization. That is, that collects almost all countries in the world, and has a task of promoting and monitoring the utilization of nuclear technology, not just empower generation, but in many other uses such as health for example, fighting cancer, or monitoring waters, or fighting pests such as certain flies and so on. So the International Atomic Energy Agency is unique, we don't have an international coal agency, not an international oil agency for nuclear energy, this is different. So we have an international regime, and nuclear energy clearly has a strong political impact, both at the national level because of devices for this that I mentioned, and at the international level because of the close connection with the danger to see nuclear weapons proliferate, and weapons of mass destruction distributed more widely, and so on. So nuclear energy notwithstanding all the controversy, remains an essential component of decarbonization strategies because of its very low or almost non-existent carbon content and impact on the atmosphere, and therefore it will remain a topic for discussion, both domestically and internationally, very much into the coming decades.